"Test everything; retain what is good.” (1 Thes 5:21) A laywoman expresses concerns about issues in the Roman Catholic Church to foster positive dialogue by posing and exploring questions.
Please remember that Canon Law says it is not only a right but a duty to question the church. Also, Canon Law provides an over-riding power to the sensus fidelium (sense of the faithful). By this, Canon Law says that if the sensus fidelium (collective of the faithful) reject a law, it is not valid.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

"You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church..."

I have returned from what I call my “Bones and Basilica” tour of Italy
and am reflecting upon some of my experiences.As previously mentioned, I think I was called to join the tour to better
understand the church’s current polarity by better understanding the church’s pious
yet powerful minority.Rest assured, the
powerful and pious were well-represented on this tour. The group included ordained clergy, diocesan
leaders, business owners, family members of the previously mentioned groups and
several staunch Republicans as well as the chaplain for and at least one member
of “Legatus”, a 2,000 plus member Catholic business executive organization
founded by Tom Monaghan (also founder of uber-orthodox Ave Maria University).

Though everyone’s reaction to any experience is unique, I found my reactions
to the "bones and basilicas" repeatedly differed significantly from those of
other group members.However, never was
that difference so pronounced as during the Vatican’s Scavi tour of the ancient
Roman necropolis over which St. Peter’s Basilica is built and which many pious
Catholics believe contains St. Peter’s mortal remains. Here is a synopsis of the Scavi tour:

A seminarian takes a small group of 10 – 15 people beyond publicly
accessible parts of Vatican City and provides some historical information -
that a Roman Circus used to be where the Vatican is, and that it is believed
St. Peter was crucified upside down at that circus, quickly cut down by
severing his feet and immediately buried in a nearby necropolis so that Peter’s
body would be protected by Roman law from movement, cremation or desecration.The part about Peter’s burial and burial
location is conjecture.

The seminarian also explains that a few hundred years after Peter’s
demise, Constantine, the first Christian emperor, built a basilica above the
believed resting spot for Peter’s remains.That basilica stood until the 1500s when
construction began on what is now St. Peter’s Basilica at the same site.

As the Scavi tour continues, the seminarian describes the modern
discovery of the necropolis in the 1930s and the ensuing search for St. Peter’s
remains over the next few decades.We
were told the dig occurred in sanctioned secret despite one important monsignor’s
opposition.Because the dig was
secretive, all excavation occurred at night.Though the official secret archaeologists did find some bones where
Peter’s remains were believed to be buried, testing in the 1950s indicated they
came from 3 different people: two males of the wrong age, and a woman.But do not despair.The story continues.

Years after reporting the disappointing findings, the official secret
archaeologists learned that the monsignor who opposed the dig had his own cadre
of non-sanctioned super-secret archaeologists who evidently must have been “secretly”
digging in broad daylight since we were told the official secret diggers worked
through the night.The monsignor had the
super-secret archaeologists go through the dig site daily after the official
secret archaeologists finished their night-time work to extract any partially exposed
bones.Evidently he felt partially
exposed bones were not respectful treatment for ancient remains.These bones were squirreled away in the
monsignor’s super-secret ancient bone repository duly labeled as to their
original location.They were discovered
years after the disappointing results from the official secret dig were
reported.

Please do not faint from surprise that the bones supposedly found by the
super-secret diggers (not to be confused with the official secret diggers) below
the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica matched the gender and age approximation that
might have matched St. Peter’s remains.Eventually
these remains were declared Peter’s and re-interred under the altar of St.
Peter’s Basilica.Hollywood soap operas
must bow in proper deference to such protracted drama. To me it is only slightly more believable than if the guide had said St. Peter's relics emerged from someone's holy rectal orifice like pulling a rabbit from a magician's hat.

After explaining all this, the seminarian reads MT 16:13-19 containing
the famous biblical quote where Jesus says, “…you are Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail
against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

At this point the majority of people in my group were in tears.Yet, my mind was streaming thoughts
associated with critical analysis such as, “Any archaeologist worth their salt
would notice the absence of partially exposed bones they found the previous day.”

To me this story that moves so many people, contains numerous gaping
holes and is what my father would call “fantastic” as in “filled with fantasy.”
To accept that these are Peter’s bones
one must at a minimum accept as truth folklore about Peter’s burial and burial
location, that after hundreds of years Constantine correctly placed the first
basilica, and that the Vatican employed shoddy archaeologists who wouldn’t
notice missing bones or properly record when a bone was found.By the way, if you’d like some information
about how meticulous excavation of human remains is, here is a short instruction paper easy for non-archaeologists to understand.

Do I believe the bones of the Scavi tour are St. Peter’s bones?I am not even close to convinced.But beyond all that – whether the
bones discovered belong to St. Peter or not, I asked the question, “So what?” Does it matter and if so, why?

On this Italy tour I realized how little “bones and basilicas” inspire
my spirituality and relationship with God.What inspired me were the people - whether they were fellow group
members, the highly educated Muslim bus driver who speaks 5 languages (4 more
than most on the tour yet assumed by many on the tour as having lesser education than
them), the person selling me gelato, or the attendant cleaning a public
bathroom.

I found it interesting that the same summerin which Pope Paul VI announced this
fantastic story about finding St. Peter’s remains, he promulgated the very
controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae upholding
the church’s longstanding ban on artificial birth control, an encyclical that
expressed the exact opposite of what his own papal commission advised him to
do. The coincidental timing fascinates
me.On June 26, 1968 a month before he published
Humanae Vitae on July 25, 1968, he announced something that laid the groundwork
for dramatically reinforcing his papal authority, something that likely would
be challenged the moment he published his encyclical on human reproduction.

Not surprisingly, not long after the announcement about finding Peter’s
remains, Scavi tours began (of course for a fee) and seem aimed at reinforcing
papal authority via well-orchestrated emotional manipulation: show people some
old stuff, offer a few facts, fill in the rest with conjecture, describe a
fantastic tale filled with Hollywood-style intrigue, and end by quoting Jesus
saying Peter has keys to the kingdom.However, I have a few concerns about the Scavi tour’s orchestration:

Calling Peter the first pope requires accepting revisionist history ignoring all the early diverse Christian communities and pretending they were one organized, united front.

The Catholic Catechism teaches that “the church” is “the people of God.”It is not buildings or the hierarchy.However, the profound effect the Scavi tour
hopes to inspire requires people to believe incorrectly that “the church” is
the hierarchy and buildings. Without that there is no reason to be moved that here is a church building for the highest member of the hierarchy built upon Peter.

Jesus tells Peter in MT 16:19 that he can hold things loosed or bound
but he also tells the exact same thing to the disciples (not apostles…just your
everyday garden-variety Jesus followers) in MT 18:18 – that they hold things
loosed or bound.But the desired effect
of the Scavi tour reinforcing papal authority requires a person to ignore the
MT 18:18 passage completely.It was not
mentioned in the tour and when I asked about it shoulders shrugged and the
question ignored.

Throughout the 10-day tour of Italy several fellow travelers tried to
help me fix problems I didn’t think I had and many assumed I, a daily Mass
attendee, was a lapsed Catholic.But the
last time during the trip I was questioned about my status with the church, I
had a profound thought.The scene
transpired following a farewell dinner when another group member asked me if I
would return to the church after this pilgrimage.As I replied that I attend daily Mass and
never left the church this thought about “the church” being “the people of God”
especially struck me and stuck with me.

The church is the people of God not the hierarchy or buildings.Yet, many of God’s people, indeed the
majority of the church, are so wounded or disgusted that they neither align with
the hierarchy nor frequent ecclesial buildings.When I answered the question I answered correctly that I have never left
the church because in addition to frequenting the buildings and interacting
with the hierarchy, I remain strongly connected to the true definition of church
– the people of God – including and especially the overwhelming majority who
disassociate themselves from the Roman Catholic institution.

However, I found myself wondering how many of the hierarchy and its
fans have abandoned the church – the people of God?It’s ironic that many of those who think they
are most tightly connected to the church because of their fusion to the
hierarchy and its buildings often are the people least connected to the actual church
– God’s people.Who is really “away from
the church?”

What is our responsibility
as members of one body to help reconnect the hierarchy and its fans to the
church – the people of God – the majority of whom eschew ecclesial buildings
and hierarchy?

About Me

I am a single mother of three who from the eyes of the Roman Catholic hierarchy is in full communion with the Church. But I question if any woman is capable of being in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church due to clericalism, sexism, and the marginalization, and emotional abuse of women.
I hold a master degree in theology from Loyola (Master of Pastoral Studies, M.P.S.). I am not employed by the Catholic Church but rather am an executive consultant.
Some ask if I want to be a priest. We are baptized priest, prophet and king. I feel I am more called to exercise my prophetic voice than a priestly one.
(Artwork supplied courtesy of one of my daughters.)